The carton wrapping machine was launched last October at an event at CMC’s factory in Citta di Castello, Italy.

It is designed to manufacture variable-sized cartons dynamically from a reel of corrugated cardboard, fill them with the relevant goods and seal and label them for shipping.

Because the machine constructs each carton around the product, material wastage is minimised. It also reduces the use of padding materials and, by making cartons smaller overall, saves on shipping costs.

“There is also a saving in terms of manpower,” said chief executive Franceso Ponti. “Where other carton lines might need seven or eight operators, this requires just one supervisor.”

The machine is targeted predominantly at the e-commerce fulfilment market, but Ponti said that photobook and on-demand book printers, or anyone wrapping at least 3,000 items a day, could also benefit from the product.

The Cartonwrap works through a size detector in the product inlet registering the size of each product. The automated box-forming section features a dynamic creasing and cutting system, a transversal cutting blade and hotmelt glue guns that automatically apply glue to the blank.

The machine has a recommended retail price of €650,000, with Ponti reporting it had a return of investment cycle of just one year. It is currently being beta tested at an e-commerce fulfilment company in Poland.

“We’ve had great reactions to this already at Ipex,” said Ponti. “A video showing this is not enough; people need to see it live.”